The Narrative Essay

Of all the essays writing assignments that students must complete during their schooling, most find the narrative essay to be the most pleasant. This type of essay assignment is rather common for English classes, and the student is asked, basically, to tell a story.  The only criteria that the instructor may give is the narrative being either non-fiction, that is, truthful and based upon actual events, or fiction, that is, a piece of writing that is not based upon an actual event in a student’s life.  The only potentially distasteful element of a narrative is that it may require dialogue, and the writer must ensure that the dialogue moves the plot or provides insight into the personalities of characters involved in the story.

The structure of a narrative is unlike that of formal essays writing since it does not necessarily have an introduction, body and conclusion.  Rather, it is a sequential piece that flows within the realm of a specific time allotment, and the author is given a great deal of flexibility in telling the tale.  This is the chance to shine with great descriptive writing, using figurative language, and even slang expressions. 

Organizing the Narrative Essay

In order to produce the best essay possible, it is important to use a graphic organizer which will allow you to arrange the plot of the story appropriately.  You do not want to leave out important events and/or dialogue that are critical to the plot, for this will leave your reader dissatisfied. Once you have the events listed in chronological order, you are ready to begin.

Topics for Narratives

If you are writing a piece of fiction, the setting and circumstances should be ones with which you are familiar.  If you live in New York, for example, and have never visited Montana, it will be unlikely that you can credibly set your story in that state. Stay “close to home” in both setting and plot development and use variations of people you actually know when introducing main characters.  The narrative should also be based upon what you know.  For example, if you have an abiding interest in music and dabble with performance, then a personal narrative or fictional tale that revolves around music would be a perfect choice.  You must have a connection with what you write, or it will seem stilted and uninteresting.

Getting Some Help

Narrative writing is difficult for students who are unable to write descriptively and to use figurative language and/or dialogue effectively.  It may be time to secure some professional help from a custom essay company.  There are many good online custom essay services that will offer to help you and such help may be at a reasonably cheap price.  If you have an idea for a narrative but cannot seem to get started, a professional writer from one of these online essay services may be able to give you a “kick-start” or provide you with a good example of a narrative. These people produce essay papers for a living and have lots of experience with all types of writing, including narratives.  If you decide to buy essay writing from them, you can as well use their products as models when working on improving your own individual style.